Strategies to Improve Health Care Quality in Virginia: Survey of Residents Age 50+

Health care consumers, providers, elected officials and medical boards are pursuing many different avenues to achieve improvement in the services patients receive. This 2006 telephone survey of 800 age 50+ Virginia residents explores their perceptions about factors that influence health care quality, and their knowledge and understanding of the state’s existing licensure requirements for health professionals.

Of those surveyed...

• 54 percent described themselves as either extremely or very satisfied with the care they receive
• 30 percent say they or a family member have experienced a medical error in Virginia
• 94 percent report their doctor is licensed in the Commonwealth of Virginia, but 64 percent have never checked his or her board certification status
• 68 percent incorrectly believe Virginia health care professionals are required (they aren’t) to demonstrate that their knowledge and skills are sufficiently up-to-date to enable them to provide quality care while 95 percent favor such a requirement as a condition of retaining licenses
• 90 percent feel practitioners’ competence should be periodically re-evaluated, and 88 percent stress the importance of them having high success rates for those diseases and conditions they treat most often

Most feel that, every five years, health care professionals should...

• be evaluated on their qualifications (84%)
• be rated by their patients and by other health care professionals with whom they work (79%)
• pass a written test of medical knowledge (78%)

The telephone survey of 800 age 50+ Virginians was conducted for AARP by Woelfel Research, Inc. throughout November 2006. Further information about the survey may be obtained by contacting the report’s author, Anita Stowell-Ritter, at 202-434-434-6205. (37 pages)